BREAKING NEWS: Former prime minister Baroness Thatcher dies peacefully at the age of 87 after suffering a massive stroke
- Iron Lady had suffered from poor health over the past decade
- Tory politician likely to have state funeral - first since Winston Churchill
- David Cameron: 'We've lost a great leader and a great Briton'
By MARTIN ROBINSON and SIMON TOMLINSON
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Death: Former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died today after a massive stroke
Former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has died of a stroke today aged 87.
Her spokesman Lord Bell revealed the news that one of Britain's greatest politicians had passed away peacefully after a long battle with poor health.
Lord Bell said: 'It is with great sadness that Mark and Carol Thatcher announced that their mother Baroness Thatcher died peacefully following a stroke this morning.
'A further statement will be made later.'
Prime Minister David Cameron said: 'It was with great sadness that l learned of Lady Thatcher’s death. We've lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton'.
The Queen is sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher and Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family, Buckingham Palace said today.
Britain’s first and only woman prime minister, who won three consecutive general elections, has been in fragile health since she suffered a series of minor strokes more than a decade ago.
She suffered acute short-term memory loss and had a series of strokes over a decade.
She spent 11 years in Downing Street, the longest run by any 20th century prime minister.
Margaret Thatcher came to power in May 1979, at the end of the infamous Winter of Discontent, where Britain was crippled by a wave of national strikes.
She spent the next decade curbing the power of trade unions, signalling the end of an era when trade union leaders trooped in and out of 10 Downing Street, haggling and bargaining with her Labour predecessors.
Instead she stripped the unions of many of their powers with the aim of transferring them to managements and individual consumers.
She successfully defied Arthur Scargill's nationwide and year-long miners' strike, which threatened to cripple Britain's entire economic base.
And as she transformed the nation - attempting to release the grip of the state on massive industries and public services alike - she became one of the most influential, talked-about, listened-to and dominant statesmen of the Western world.
When Argentina invaded the Falklands, she despatched a task force to the South Atlantic which drove the enemy off the islands in an incomparable military operation 8,000 miles from home.
Death: Former Prime minister Margaret Thatcher leaves Number 10 Downing Street for the last time after she was defeated by John Major in the Conservative Party leadership election of 1990
Her triumphant achievement of power in May 1979 signalled the end of the era when trade union leaders trooped in and out of 10, Downing Street, haggling and bargaining with her Labour predecessors.
Instead she stripped the unions of many of their powers with the aim of transferring them to managements and individual consumers.
In 1990, a leadership challenge forced her to leave No 10 and two years later she was made a life peer, as Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.
In recent years she has led a quiet life cared for by her loyal housekeeper Kate. She suffered a minor stroke in 2002 which left her with short-term memory loss.
Her beloved husband Denis died in 2003 and her children Mark and Carol both live abroad.
Lady Thatcher was not well enough to join the Queen for a lunch with former and serving prime ministers as part of the Diamond Jubilee this summer. And two years ago she missed an 85th birthday party thrown in her honour by Mr Cameron at 10 Downing Street.
In October she was sufficiently well, however, to mark her 87th birthday with lunch at a restaurant in London’s St James’s district with Mark and his wife.
Iron Lady Baroness Thatcher, the grocer's daughter, who became the longest serving British prime minister of the 20th century, is expected to be honoured with a full state funeral at Wesminster Abbey.
Not since Winston Churchill has a politician been granted such a tribute. During her 11 years at Number 10 she changed not only the face of Britain but the entire world.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305751/BREAKING-NEWS-Iron-Lady-Margaret-Thatcher-dead.html#ixzz2PsFlrzdL
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